Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.
Notes from a YouTube video are made by the Potok Telegram bot @potok_now_bot: send it a link to the video, and it transcribes the speech into text, and with the Summary button it builds a short summary with the main points. It is free for 60 minutes of recognition per month, after that a subscription is needed. For typing your own text by voice there is a separate Potok app.
Rewatching a two-hour lecture or webinar for a few short notes is inconvenient; it is faster to send a link to a bot and get the ready text. The Potok Telegram bot @potok_now_bot accepts YouTube links and turns the recording into text with a short summary button, with no program to install; other services for the same task are collected in the comparison of transcription services.
What the bot does with a video link
The work starts with a link: open the bot, press Start and send a link to a YouTube video in private messages. A short recording arrives as text right in the chat, a long one as a file; the file format (TXT or DOCX) is chosen in the bot settings with the /settings command.
Then you can work with the ready transcript using the buttons under the message:
- Summary: a short summary of the video and tasks by speaker; this is the ready set of notes;
- Tasks and deadlines: separately who, what and by when, if it was said in the recording;
- Ask: an answer to your own question about the text of the recording, without retelling everything again;
- Other format: export of the text to TXT, DOCX, Markdown, PDF, and also SRT and VTT, which are subtitle files.
Timecodes and speaker markup, Speaker 1 and Speaker 2, can be turned on in the /settings. By default the bot sends continuous text without them.
Who a bot-made video summary suits
The bot is convenient when the video is long and you need not timecodes but the essence:
- students and anyone who learns from lecture and webinar recordings can read the summary instead of watching again;
- those who prepare notes on training videos and lessons from YouTube;
- those who watch recordings of calls and presentations posted on YouTube and do not want to rewatch the whole video for one fact;
- those who need not only a summary but also the full text, for example to quote an exact phrase from the video.
If you need not the whole text but markup for a timeline, SRT subtitles from a video suit such a video better: the bot makes them too with the Other format button.
When the bot will not suit
The Potok bot will not suit if the video is not in Russian: it recognizes only Russian speech, and there is no translation into another language. It also will not suit where you need real names of speakers instead of the numbers Speaker 1, Speaker 2, since the bot does not know them. The bot does not transcribe during a call, only an already finished recording sent as a file or a link. The bot also will not accept links to Instagram and TikTok, only YouTube, VK Video, RuTube and direct links to a file. The Potok bot is a cloud one: recognition runs on servers in Russia, and it does not work without the internet.
Frequently asked questions
No, the bot does not know names. With speaker markup turned on in the settings, it labels lines only with numbers: Speaker 1, Speaker 2.
Yes, the Other format button exports the text to SRT and VTT, which are subtitle files, along with TXT, DOCX, Markdown and PDF.
Check it in one evening
Install Potok, dictate what you usually type and compare. 14 days of full access, no card needed. Potok is a cloud service: speech is recognized on servers in Russia, and it does not work without the internet.
Download PotokExisting recordings are transcribed by Potok's Telegram bot @potok_now_bot: send a file or a YouTube, VK Video or RuTube link and the text arrives in the chat. The Potok subscription removes the limit in the bot too.
Primary sources: yandex.ru · vc.ru · speech2text.ru · audio-2-text.ru